It doesn’t necessarily have to be beach time to use beach gear. Some people use summer beach towels as extra large bath towels, for example. There’s certainly nothing wrong with using one thing in more than one way. There is a really fun sewing craft you can do to make an all-in-one tote bag, beach towel, mat, and pillow. The set can be taken to the beach during the summer but also has other uses.
Use a regular bath towel and matching hand towel to make the beach set. It’s important that the hand towel’s length be the same as the width of the bath towel. Most hand and bath towel sets are made like that but check just to make sure.
Cut a 21″ piece of narrow webbing, wide ribbon, or something similar, to make the handles for the beach set. Pin one end of the ribbon to one long side of the hand towel, and do the same with the other end of the ribbon, spacing them evenly apart, and placing them close to the center of the long side of the hand towel. Sew about three inches of each end, where they’re pinned, to the towel with straight stitches. Do the same thing to the bath towel but sew the handles onto one short side of it.
Lay the bath towel on a flat surface so that the short side without the handles is facing you. Lay the bath towel across the top of the bath towel so that the two sets of handles are together. Pin the bottom of the hand towel to the bath towel and sew across it to seam the two towels.
Measure about four inches from the side of the pouch and sew down the side seam. Do the same to the opposite side to create the two side seams of the tote. The top of the tote, where the handles are, will remain open. Through this opening, turn the towel set inside-out. Tuck the length of the bath towel inside the new tote bag.
Place other things inside your tote and off you go. At the beach or elsewhere, simply turn the tote right-side-out to have a mat. Stuff the pouch with clothing or an additional towel to make a pillow. Although the all-in-one tote, mat, towel, and pillow is also perfect for the beach it’s also great for a young girl to take to a sleepover.